Done deal: Columbia Hospitality gets approval to manage Gold Mountain

Bremerton mayor Patty Lent got her wish. Columbia Hospitality,
which has zero experienced running a golf course, was awarded the
contract to manage Gold Mountain Golf Club. They start a
transitional period on Thursday and their 3-year contract will kick
in on Jan. 1, 2013, when current director of golf Scott Alexander’s
contract runs out. Once again, I’ve got nothing against the mayor
or Columbia Hospitality. I’m against this because I think the city
should have opened the process to other potential bidders.

Someone told me that if current greens superintendent Ed Faulk
wanted to sell an old mower, the city would require that Ed get
three sealed bids.

Could another management company or a group interested in
running Gold Mountain file an injunction against the city because
it didn’t put the contract up for competitive bid?

Josh Farley covered Wednesday’s city council meeting.
Here’s his story:

By JOSH FARLEYjfarley@kitsapsun.com360-792-9227

BREMERTON — Bremerton city council members overcame concerns
that a management company was too green to run Gold Mountain Golf
Club Wednesday night, hiring a familiar face to do it.The Bremerton city council voted 6-2 Wednesday night to retain
Columbia Hospitality, a company that has run the Kitsap Conference
Center for more than eight years, to manage the 36-hole golf
complex. The company’s contract starts Thursday.Under the terms of the deal, Columbia Hospitality gets five
percent of all revenues generated at the club, which includes the
golf courses, restaurant, driving range and pro shop. To provide
additional financial incentive and help the city meet its debt
burden on the property, the company also gets 20 percent of net
income the complex generates over $600,000.In 2011, net operating income was $409,000, according to city
financial records.Bremerton city councilwoman Leslie Daugs said she was at first
reluctant to go with Columbia because they hadn’t managed a golf
course before. But she said once she knew those currently running
the course would be retained, she felt better about the deal. She
also felt the city will be able to keep an eye on the complex under
the new contract.“We will know what’s going out and what’s coming in,” she
said.City councilmen Adam Brockus and Greg Wheeler voted no. All
other city council members voted yes with the exception of Carol
Arends, who was not at the meeting.Brockus lamented that the city hadn’t put the contract out to a
competitive bid. He said Columbia would have likely won the
contract “fair and square” had it gone to bid. But he based his
vote on the premise that the city should use a competitive process
for such things.“We should not make a habit of this,” he said.Councilman Wheeler criticized the pick for the same reason, as
well as Daugs’ concern that the company has not managed a golf
course before.City officials counter that the course’s overseers won’t
change: Longtime golf pro Daryl Matheny will stay on even as fellow
pro Scott Alexander retires; Greens Superintendent Ed Faulk, also a
veteran of more than two decades at the course, will also be
retained.Lenny Zilz, vice president of operations for Columbia
Hospitality, said at Wednesday night’s city council meeting that
golf courses aren’t new for many employees at Columbia.
“It’s a new experience for a company, but it’s not a new
experience for individuals within that company,” he said.Zilz used his own experience as an example: he’s been a general
manager at resorts in California and Hawaii that included golf
courses.The company is hopeful it can fatten profits at the course,
mainly in two ways: it can it can cross-staff with the downtown
conference center and its 25 other properties where it has
management contracts and it can put its marketing expertise to use
to draw new clients. For example, the company has an email list of
80,000 it can market the golf courses and complex to.Their success would be welcomed by the city, whose debt on the
golf course will grow in coming years: $282,000 in debt service in
2013, peaking at $471,000 in 2018, where it will remain until it’s
paid off in 2028.The course is well regarded in the golf world; ranked by
Golf.com as the fourth best municipal golf course in the state this
year, it hosted the U.S. Boys Junior in 2011, as well as the U.S.
Amateur Public Links Tournament in 2006.

I agree with you Chuck. I was at the council meeting last night as well as at the original study session weeks ago where the administration finally decided to reveal the situation to the council.

This was blatant political manipulation on the part of the Mayor and the Administration to engineer this entire situation into exactly what they wanted in the first place. They have circumvented the process deliberately and denied the citizens of Bremerton their due process of open bidding and transparency. I am disgusted. This will be remembered and used in the next election where everyone’s seat is up for replacement.

I would like to thank Councilman Greg Wheeler. He openly petitioned and pushed for the open bid process from the very beginning. He voted NO last night. Brockus also voted NO because of the lack of the open bidding process.